


Guts +5

by Legal_Assassin



Series: ShuHaru Week 2019 [3]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor, Haru is perceptive, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Torture, Ren needs to be a bit more selfish, Shuharu Week 2019, movies - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 04:40:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18653095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legal_Assassin/pseuds/Legal_Assassin
Summary: Ren Amamiya had gone through too much to let a stupid movie take him down.





	Guts +5

**Author's Note:**

> Day 3 of ShuHaru Week! This time the prompts are Movies/Dreams. Movies is my choice.
> 
> Takes place after the events of the game.
> 
> I feel it fair to warn you that there's vague mentions of gore (from the in-fic movie). I did my best to not go into too much detail to keep the rating from going up.
> 
> Also, this was supposed to be humorous, but got sweet at the end.

This was nothing, Ren told himself. He'd taken down monsters, corrupt adults, the mafia, a national conspiracy, and even a god. He'd been beaten, tortured, nearly killed, and erased from existence and still got back up every time. All of this and more with style and grace befitting a Phantom Thief.

Ren Amamiya would absolutely not let some stupid movie get the best of him. Especially when his girlfriend was sitting right next to him.

He repeated this as the opening credits for _Sinister Dead_ , the movie Haru picked for their date, rolled on screen with an accompanying minor chord score. If he stopped even for a second, he would bolt out of the theater.

After the credits, the film opened on a group of college students driving through the woods to an old rundown cabin. Ren snorted. How many American horror movies started like this? Was it a rule they had to follow? 'Let me guess,' he thought. 'One of them is going to find some weird object and unleash an unspeakable evil?' And Haru had said that this was supposed to be a hard-core movie.

Huh. Maybe if he embraced his inner film critic, he could make it through this.

Ten minutes after the credits (and Ren internally snarking about these idiots missing the obvious signs that they needed to get the hell out of this cabin), one of the kids found a collection of super eight films and decided that the smartest thing to do was to start watching them. 'Called it,' Ren thought as a shadowy figure detached from the projected image and flew out of the cabin without anyone in the film noticing.

The film switched to a first-person perspective from the shadow's point-of-view. It stalked one of the kids through the woods, circling around her and taking its sweet time. 'Just get on with it,' Ren thought.

As though the movie read his mind, it switched back to third-person to follow the college kid. Suddenly, the trees around the girl came alive and grabbed her. As the branches wrapped around her flailing limbs and hoisted her up, Ren had to give some points to creativity and the special effects.

Then one branch started slithering up her bare leg.

'No,' Ren thought, blood draining from his face. 'They wouldn't... there's no way they would.'

They did. Ren squeezed his eyes shut and his legs together; he didn't have to have the same parts to empathize with the character's pain. The girl screamed throughout the... act... with other sounds mixed in. At some point while trying not to watch what was going on, he felt Haru's hand go to his and squeeze it. Whether it was to get comfort or to give it, he wasn't sure.

At last the screaming stopped. Ren opened his eyes and watched the girl, somehow still alive after what just happened but with something now clearly off about her, limp back to the cabin with none of her friends the wiser. Good; the movie was going back into familiar territory. Now Ren could go back to calling out all the cliches.

Not long after her return, the possessed-girl screamed with a demonic voice that everyone in the cabin was going to die that night. 'Just like every Shadow that told us that we wouldn't stand a chance against the Palace rulers,' Ren thought as the girl jumped onto another girl and bit a chunk of her cheek off.

Once the kids subdued their possessed friend and locked her in the attic, they began discussing what was going on and how it related to the films. The injured girl, meanwhile, went to the bathroom to patch herself up. 'Splitting up. Great idea! What could possibly go wrong?' Ren snarked.

Sure enough, after a discussion that didn't involve getting the hell out of there, one of the kids went to check on the injured girl. Her back was to the camera for what Ren was certain was the dramatic reveal that she was also possessed. The movie built suspense as she slowly turned around.

Ren's hand flew to his mouth to stifle a gasp as he got a full view of the girl's cut-up and flayed face.

The sight was grotesque, but -- no matter how much he really wanted to -- Ren couldn't look away. The camera lingered on the girl's face long enough to let the horror settle in before she lunged at the kid.

"Are you alright?"

Ren jumped in his seat a little at the voice. He turned and saw Haru. Even in the dark he could make out her frown and furrowed brows.

"I'm fine," he said, managing to keep his voice level.

Haru's frown remained. "If it's too much, we can leave," she said.

Ren was tempted; he'd always been sensitive to gore and body horror. And it was becoming clear that that was going to be the center of the movie's attention. But Haru was so excited to see this that she hadn't stopped talking about it for days. And he knew that she didn't like to see these movies alone. He didn't want to ruin this for her. So he shook his head and focused on just getting through the movie.

It only got worse from there. All the filmmakers' creativity had gone into new ways to mutilate and kill their cast and past characters in the super eight films. Boiling water, acid, nail guns, a sledgehammer, and a meat carver all became instruments of pain. One particular scene involving a knife and someone's fingernails had Ren shutting his eyes, curling his fingers protectively into the armrests, and internally chanting 'nopenopenopenopenopenopenope.'

He was broken out of it by a tug on his arm and Haru whispering "let's go" into his ear.

Ren followed her out of the theater, feeling equal parts relieved and guilty. When they were in the lobby, Haru turned to him. "Is this better?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. "Just give me a bit and we can go back."

Haru shook her head. "You're not enjoying it," she said. "You looked like you wanted to be anywhere else."

Ren sighed. No point hiding it anymore. "I'm not a fan of gore," he said. "Especially not when it involves eyes, teeth, or fingers. Or if parts start twisting and changing. Killer elephants are fun, but not torture or body horror."

"Then... why did you agree to see this with me?" Haru asked.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "You've mentioned before that your father kept you from doing a lot of stuff like this," he said. "And that you didn't like going to these movies alone." He glanced away, unable to meet her eyes. "I didn't want to be the reason you couldn't do something you wanted."

Now it was Haru's turn to sigh. She reached up to gently turn Ren's head to face her. "I appreciate your wish for me to be happy, but there are two important facts you're forgetting," she said. "First, I want to enjoy new things with you. Not at your expense. Second, I would have asked Futaba-chan if you weren't interested."

"Wait; Futaba wanted to see this?" Ren asked in disbelief.

"She was curious about how different the remake would be from the original," Haru explained.

Ren chuckled weakly. "I didn't know that," he said. "Or that Futaba was apparently a fan."

"Then answer me honestly; if you knew that, would you have agreed to come with me?" Haru asked.

"...Probably not," Ren finally admitted.

"So would you rather we leave now and go somewhere else?" she asked.

"I would," he said. 

Haru smiled. "Then let's be off." As they walked out of the theater, she spoke again. "By the way, since you mentioned that you were aiming to return for the summer, there was another movie coming out then that I wanted to see. It's supposed to be more supernatural horror than gore. Would you be interested? Also, I plan on asking Yusuke-kun if you're not. I think he would enjoy the cinematography."

"I'll wait until I hear more," Ren said.

"Then I'll keep you updated," Haru said.

Ren nodded. Now that he was out of the movie, he was more at ease. And now that he knew that he didn't have to see every movie Haru wanted, it was like a weight had been lifted off of him.


End file.
